Sterling College Bakes Organic Pies to Feed Community

Image source: Sterling CollegeSterling College - University of Vermont students give new meaning to the idea of college students getting baked. ahem. This time, they are actually baking pies to save the planet. Well, or at least feed their local neighbors. Combining a need in area food banks, with a surplus of organic butternut squash and willing labor, one local community is taking its motto outside of their campus walls and acting locally.The squash was harvested by the Sterling students, taken to Craftbury Pete's Greens for processing, and then baked in the Sterling College Kitchen and ultimately ending up in the bellies of those at the Hardwick Area Food Pantry, the Greensboro Early Learning Center, Hardwick's Community Dinner, and the Greensboro Nursing Home.

Ingredients, like the 1000 pounds of squash grown at the Foote Brook Farm, were all sourced locally. Cabot Farms provided the butter, crusts were donated by the Patchwork Farms Bakery, eggs from Applecheek Farms, spices from Buffalo Mountain Coop, flour from Butterworks Farm, and maple sugar from Butternut Mountain Farm. Even the recipe was adapted from a local source, Hardwick's Claire Restaurant. All unused squash will meet its originally intended fate in a compost.

The project was initially designed by the owner of High Mowing Seed Company, Tom Stearn, when he realized that there was both a surplus of squash and a need at area food banks. UVM recently signed a partnership with High Mowing Seed, so it was easy to get the students on board. The first 60 pies were made just in time for Thanksgiving and the students are planning future pie baking nights this winter.

Sterling College also lives by this local foot motto, producing most of the food consumed on campus in their own organic garden. They also have two solar/wind powered barns on the working livestock farm. The college motto "Working Hands. Working Minds" was, well, put to work for this project. :Sterling College